Berthed at 0700 in the shade of a high steep hill on our east so we had a cool morning even though the sun was shining brightly. The side of the hill serves as a billboard for artists from the visiting ships.
Walked half a mile or so into town and found that "town" consists of a few blocks of stores catering to the tourists, apartments and mobile home parks for seasonal workers and homes further up the valley.
Spent an hour in the Gold Rush Museum but passed on the tourist stores in favor of walking through the waterfront park on the way back to the ship.
The Emerald Princess was berthed behind us and a Disney cruise ship was tied up across the channel leading to a small boat marina.
In the marina I saw some pleasure boast but most were commercial fishermen mostly gillnetters and trollers.
After lunch we boarded a bus for a trip to White Pass and other points of interest.
First stop was the Gold Rush Cemetery where Soapy Smith and other notable locals are buried.
Skagway is toward the northern end of the coastal rain forest. As we went over the pass (a little under 3000 feet) we passed into Canada and tundra country with scrubby vegetation and lots of exposed rock.
Being high and with relatively little rain, it is no wonder that it takes many decades for vegetation to establish a foothold after the glaciers recede.
Not so long ago (geologically speaking) this whole area was covered by ice. The highest peaks are jagged because they remained above the ice, but all the other mountains and hills are rounded where they were ground down by the huge expanse of glacial ice.
On the way back we passed back into Alaska.
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| A tourist couple with Skagway and the Westerdam in the background |
Our driver told us the summertime population is around 3000 people but in the winter after the tourist workers go south the population drops to around 750 people.
Ikuko and I decided we wouldn't like to live in Skagway.
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